My son Oliver Rackham, who has died aged 57 of a brain tumour, was no ordinary neonatal paediatrician. Believing that a child’s parents were vital in every consultation and decision, he championed parental involvement on the neonatal unit long before the idea became mainstream.
In the fragile world of neonates, where life is held by a thread, he was admired by patients, colleagues and students for his unwavering care, attention to detail and his communication skills. He listened with empathy and spoke with sincerity and honesty.
As clinical lead of the National Neonatal Audit programme for the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health he made a lasting impression on neonatal care and outcomes. For the British Association of Perinatal Medicine (BAPM), Oliver wrote guidance on many topics, and served on numerous working groups and committees. In 2023 he was given an outstanding contribution award by the BAPM.
Oliver was born in Durham, to me, a social worker and counsellor, and Jeffrey Rackham, an academic, who left the family home when Oliver was four. After our divorce I married Rob Catty, a GP, who took on paternal responsibilities for Oliver and his siblings.
While at Durham Johnston comprehensive school he completed his first half-marathon at 13 in the second Great North Run (before age restrictions were introduced). He then studied medicine at St Catharine’s College, Cambridge, and St Bartholomew’s hospital, London.
After qualifying in 1994 Oliver worked at the Homerton hospital in east London for two years and travelled to New Zealand to work in paediatrics at the Starship children’s hospital in Auckland. He returned to the UK in 1998 to specialise in neonatology, first at Arrowe Park hospital, Wirral, in Merseyside, where he was awarded the Patients’ Choice award in 2015, and then, from 2018, at Glan Clwyd hospital, north Wales, where he remained for the rest of his career.
He met Fiona Marks, a staff nurse, while both were working on an oncology ward at Barts. They married in 1998 and settled in Chester.
Oliver’s commitment went beyond working hours: when parents set up fundraising events he often took part – whether cycling coast-to-coast or rowing the equivalent of the Atlantic (in a shopping mall).
Imaginative, with an ability to solve difficult problems and with a great sense of humour, he was a voracious reader of fact and fiction. He was devoted to his family, encouraging his children in their extracurricular activities – and participating with them in taekwondo (he was a black belt), golf, football, tennis and rugby. He drew the line at musical theatre but took immense pride in his children’s performances.
Oliver is survived by Fiona and their children, Sam, Charlie, Ben and Lily; by Rob and me; and by his siblings, Ruth, Simon, Deborah, Jessica and Sophie.
